We probably could have stayed in Aspen another week. The weather was beautiful and the aspens were peaking, but a plan is a plan and sometimes you have to tear yourselves away. We were off to Rifle Falls and a stay at the Rifle Gap campground. This campground was more developed than our usual fare and we hoped to get caught up on things after two weeks of no internet at our campsite. Rifle Gap is a state park with full hookups and decent cell service. It was a very pleasant place to hang out for a week.
Rifle Gap is, well, a gap. Specifically it is a gap in the 90-mile long Grand Hogback which stretches roughly north/south about 50 miles from the Colorado/Utah border. The Grand Hogback is a 9,000-foot range of mountains that is the boundary between the Colorado Plateau to the west--with its flat mesas and canyonlands that stretch halfway across Utah and down to the Grand Canyon in Arizona--and the peaks of the Rocky Mountains to the east. One of Rifle Gap's claims to history is the erection of a 1,250-foot-wide orange curtain across the gap by the artist Christo. This curtain only lasted 27 hours before gale-force winds blew it to tatters.
We visited Rifle Falls, which is a very picturesque triple waterfall, and we had a blast at the Rifle annual chili cookoff. We pigged out on chili of all flavors and colors--elk chili, pumpkin chili, green, red and purple chili. We had heartburn for a few days, but it supported the scholarship fund for the Rifle High School kids, so what the hey.
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| Rifle Falls |
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| Rifle Falls also had many limestone caves that were fun to explore |
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| Rifle Gap |
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| Sunrise on the Grand Hogback |
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| Our new trailer at dawn |
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